Or Does It Explode: An Analysis

“All of the magazine vendors are black males.”(Duneier, 44) this is a strange statement that sounds particularly ridiculous at first and it does demonstrate certain thought provoking social phenomenon. In order to understand this social phenomenon, we need first to understand the reasons behind those human behaviors. It’s not an easy task to identify the reasons for this phenomenon which involves several complicated factors, with this in mind, I would like to develop those human behaviors into three phases. Firstly, the social attitudes of surrounding society toward blacks made blacks feel like they were segregated; secondly, the social attitude resulted those “norms” of social behaviors; thirdly, Blacks reactions to those “norms”. In the book, “Or Does It Explode?:

“‘People don’t understand what we’re about,’ said Marvin. ‘They already think negative about us.’”(Duneier, 54) moreover, “His Rolodex? I wondered. This unhoused man has a Rolodex? Why I assumed that Hakim was unhoused is difficult to know for certain.”(Duneier, 22). These are concrete examples that Blacks can never get traded equally as whites do. The significance of negative attitude for Blacks cannot be overvalued. It will hurt Blacks’ feeling of self-confidence; it will increase the feelings of alienation in between Blacks and Whites. Furthermore, flashback to the cultural renaissance in Harlem in the 1920s, before the Great depression, the life in Harlem was rich and positive, but that seems to be changing. The Great depression came without any announcement. Under the circumstances, whole society is facing the situation that short for job opportunities, things are going on in people’s mind, “‘No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job’ and ‘Niggers, back to the cotton fields—city jobs are for white folks.’” (Trotter) People under stress become more intentional, and they acted